Highly rated gadgets
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8.5
Xiaomi Mi A2
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9.0
Sony WH-1000XM3
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9.0
FujiFilm XF10
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9.0
Panasonic LUMIX LX100 II
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10.0
Nikon Z 7
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8.0
BlackBerry Motion
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9.1
Apple iPhone XS
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10.0
FujiFilm X-T3
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9.1
Apple iPhone XS Max
Qualcomm buys Pixtronix to make for better Mirasol displays?
Like UnlikeQualcomm's whipped out some flipping great wadges of cash in order to snap up Pixtronix for its PerfectLight MEMS-based display tech. It reportedly cost between $175 - $200 million and is expected to be merged into the company's super-low power Mirasol-based displays. Compared to the Kyobo eReader we played with at CES, PerfectLight has a wider viewing angle (170 degree), supports full speed video playback and much better RGB modulation. Depending on how successful the marriage is, it could spell the end of the final hurdles that have hampered the widespread adoption of the technology.
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Motorola Mobility loses $80m in Q4 on $3.4b revenue, ships 10.5m phones
Like UnlikeFiled in: Motorola
As it prepares to be swallowed whole by Google, Motorola Mobility has come out with its Q4 and full-year 2011 numbers this afternoon. The most important figure — earnings — is in red ink territory this quarter with a loss of $80 million on revenue of $3.4 billion; in the fourth quarter of 2010, it had posted a $110 million profit.
The company's phone shipments are down, year over year: it sent out 10.5 million mobile devices overall in the quarter versus 11.3 million a year prior. In total, Moto shipped 42.4 million devices in 2011 — 18.7 million of which were smartphones. Another million were tablets, but Q4 was responsible for a dismal 200,000, so it would seem there was little or no boost...
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Source code theft prompts Symantec to issue warning to customers
Like UnlikeSecurity software publisher Symantec has confirmed it was the victim of a cyber attack, resulting in the theft and disclosure of product source code. Earlier this month, the online-collective Anonymous stated, via Twitter, that it possessed portions of the code in question and planned to release it in support of a class-action lawsuit filed by consumers -- the suit claims Symantec employed scare tactics to encourage users to purchase its wares. Via its website, the company affirmed Anonymous' claims, citing a source code heist dating back to 2006. The post goes on to suggest that users running Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks, Symantec Endpoint...
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Twitter Will Censor Your Tweets If a Country Tells It To
Like UnlikeIn a slight change in policy, Twitter has enabled the ability "to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country—while keeping it available in the rest of the world." Basically, if a tweet is illegal in a certain country, it will be censored in that country. In the rest of the world, it'll still be completely visible.
Previously, Twitter had no control over tweets other than removing them globally (which they don't do). Twitter says it's introducing this policy because Twitter is growing internationally and into countries that have "different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression". If Twitter didn't change the policy to include the ability to censor, Twitter wouldn'...
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FBI Looking for a Good Facebook-Snooping App
Like UnlikeThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a better way to spy on Facebook and Twitter users. That's pretty much the gist of a new FedBizOpps.gov post from the FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) soliciting proposals for an app capable of sniffing through online media sites and social networks.
The successful app will "have the ability to rapidly assemble critical open-source information and intelligence that will allow SIOC to quickly vet, identify, and geo-locate breaking events, incidents, and emerging threats," according to a detailed guide to just what is the FBI is looking for in its online snooping tool.
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Samsung Epic 4G Touch update pulls Carrier IQ
Like UnlikeFiled in: Cell PhonesSamsungEpic 4G Touch
As part of its promise to back away from Carrier IQ on its handsets, Sprint's latest software update for its Samsung Epic 4G Touch removes it. The EL29 update is also said to bring with it a number of other changes, such as a security update, the activation of the Commercial Alert System, and dismissing multiple calendar alerts.
The phones will be updated to version S:D710.10S.EL29. The update will take 10 days to reach all Epic 4G Touch handsets from Sprint, although it may be possible to speed the update through checking manually. Detailed changes, such as a new phone answer screen are present on the device as well.
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Spotify reaches 3 million paying subscribers
Like UnlikeSpotify has reached a new milestone, hitting 3 million paying subscribers, up from 2 million in September and 2.5 million in November. The conversion ratio of paying subscribers has also increased, with the new figure representing 20 percent of Spotify’s active user base, whereas that ratio was 15 percent last March.
The new numbers are a good sign for Spotify and help to reassure the music industry that this model works. Spotify operates as a freemium service that allows both ad-supported free accounts and paid premium accounts, all with unlimited playback, although it recently implemented monthly caps on the free accounts.
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iPhone 5 release details "leaked"
Like UnlikeFiled in: Cell PhonesApple
An employee for Foxconn in China has reportedly stated production of a device dubbed the iPhone 5 is about to go into production.
The source also revealed to 9to5Mac there are several sample handsets doing the rounds, but all differ slightly from each other. It is not clear which, if any, is the final device.
Some similarities between all the samples have been noted, including a screen which is 4-inches (or larger) in size, a different form-factor – hinting that Apple is going to move away from the 4/4S design and the devices are longer and wider than previous iPhones.
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Lenovo ThinkPad X130e now available, estimated ship date of February 9th
Like UnlikeFiled in: NotebooksLenovoThinkPad x130e
The student-friendly ThinkPad X130e has completed the tech cycle: it has been leaked, announced, and delayed, and now it's available to order on Lenovo's website. In case you've forgotten, the system has an 11.6-inch, 1366x768 display and it comes in two base configs: one with AMD's E-300 APU and another with Intel's Core i3-2367M. Both systems have an estimated ship date of February 9th, and they'll cost you $429 and $549, respectively.
What makes the X130e different than other ThinkPads? Well, Lenovo says it's strengthened the system all around to make sure it will stand up to the rigors of being tossed around in a knapsack: there's a rubber strip around the entire system, a beefed-up hing...
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Radeon HD 7950 Reference Design Pictured
Like UnlikeFiled in: Graphic CardsAMDRadeon HD 7950
It looks like Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950 won't share a common design after all, as press-shots of the HD 7950 suggest. The HD 7950 is also said to use a different PCB design from the HD 7970, diminishing any chance of the HD 7950 being "unlockable" to HD 7970 using a BIOS update. The reference design card uses a cost-effective heatsink with internal ventilation using a top-flow fan, and not a fin-canal design the HD 7970 uses, which pushes hot air out of the case.
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Microsoft paid Nokia $250 million to use Windows Phone
Like UnlikeFiled in: MicrosoftNOKIA
Nokia just posted its hugely anticipated Holiday quarter results and summed up its financials for 2011. Not surprisingly, the company posted a huge loss of nearly $1.4 billion (1.07 billion euro), but what’s even more interesting - Nokia is getting paid by Microsoft to make Windows Phones.
Nokia received a $250 million “platform support payment” from Microsoft, just because it is making Windows Phone devices. Nokia also notes that this is the first from a series of payments from Redmond, but it seems that Microsoft has to up that sum to make up for Nokia’s huge loss.
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Nokia shakes up Board of Directors after mixed quarter, difficult year
Like UnlikeFiled in: NOKIA
Nokia’s Q4 numbers came out this morning, and they’re a mixed bag, although the bad outweighs the good. More important Nokia has had a terrible year – one that was worse than the already bad numbers they projected at the beginning of 2011. To a large degree that can be attributed to poor management – they announced that Symbian was on an end of life schedule several quarters before they had a replacement line ready, leading to a crash in market share. When the Meego-powered N9 proved popular with reviewers, Nokia intentionally restricted its market reach so it wouldn’t compete with their WP7 products.
Even the adoption of Windows Phone – which makes some strategic sense, especially given the...
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Microsoft to pay AT&T reps $200 million in the U.S. to recommend Windows Phone models
Like UnlikeFiled in: MicrosoftAT&T
If you can't beat 'em, pay someone off to beat 'em. That seems to be what Microsoft has in mind in order to raise Windows Phone sales in the U.S. The plan is to pay AT&T staff $10 to $15 for each Windows Phone handset sold as a direct result of a recommendation to a customer. Obviously, Microsoft believes that its mobile OS cannot compete on its merits alone at this stage in the game.
Looking at a chart of global OS marketshare, you can see that Android has been in a major uptrend through the third quarter of last year. Symbian's trend resembles RIM's stock price and iOS has been steady. The graph, based on data from Gartner, shows that Windows Phone had only 2.7% of the market by the end o...
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Microsoft patents method for secure pairing of devices wirelessly and a 3D rangefinder camera
Like UnlikeFiled in: Microsoft
IBM may be the king of patents, and Apple's patent applications grace these pages rather frequently, but Microsoft's not one to rest on its IP laurels, either. A couple of newly published patents out of Redmond have made their way to the web: one for securely pairing wireless devices and one for 3D rangefinder camera technology. The pairing tech works via a direct connection between devices using Bluetooth or WiFi and an automated, two-step authentication process. First, a request is sent by an initiating handset and is authenticated by its target using an address book of recognized devices. Next, the two devices exchange encrypted security keys to cement their digital friendship, leaving yo...
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Nokia plans board of directors refresh, chairman to step down
Like UnlikeFiled in: NOKIA
Following on from today's mixed bag of Nokia financials, the Espoo-based company will see some changes on its directorial board, after its Annual General Meeting in a few months. As forecast last year, non-executive chairman Jorma Ollila joined Nokia in 1985 and has been on the board through Nokia's explosive growth into the world's biggest handset manufacturer -- and its more recent troubles. He will leave the board alongside more recent members Bengt Holmström and Per Karlsson, while existing board member Risto Siilasmaa is currently pegged to take the helm once the new board of directors is formed. New candidates earmarked for the board include Bruce Brown, of Procter and Gamble, Mårten M...
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